For the rest of the Laguna Lake, LLDA General Manager Joey Medina said they want to clear 2,000 hectares of fish pens, especially those along navigational lanes, before the end of June.

Materials dismantled by the government will be under its custody and will be stored in Binangonan and Cardona in Rizal.

Some fish pen owners will be given until March to harvest their fish.

Environment Undersecretary Arturo Valdez said they will organize people’s groups to help in the dismantling.

LAGUNA LAKE OPERATION. Members of the military and media aboard a Coast Guard vessel before departing for Binangonan, Rizal, for the dismantling of fish pens at the Laguna Lake, January 25, 2017. Photo by Jee Geronimo/Rappler

“[We want to] deliver by the time na ‘di na niya punahin ‘yung Laguna de Bay sa kanyang State of the Nation Address,” Valdez said, referring to President Rodrigo Duterte.

(We want to deliver, so that the President won’t criticize Laguna de Bay in his State of the Nation Address.)

Duterte vowed in his first SONA to transform Laguna Lake into an ecotourism zone, so that “poor fishermen will have priority in its entitlement.”

Medina, who just assumed office last Monday, January 23, admitted that the Laguna Lake has been neglected not only by the government but also by the communities living near it.

The government hopes that fishermen will benefit from these efforts to restore the Laguna Lake to its “original, pristine condition.”